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HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION 



Historical Explanation of the 
Dutch Floats 

IN THE ALL-NATIONS' DIVISION OP THE HUDSON-FULTON PARADE 



ALBANY. N. Y. 
OCTOBER 8, 1909 



ISSUED BY 

THE HOLLAND HUDSON-FULTON SOCIETY 

OF 

ALBANY AND VICINITY 



HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION 

Historical Explanation of the 
Dutch Floats 

IN THE ALL-NATIONS' DIVISION Of THE HUDSON-fULTON PARADE 



ALBANY, N. Y. 
OCTOBER 8. 1909 



ISSUED KY 
THE HOLLAND HUDSON-FULTON SOCIETY 

OF 

ALBANY AND VICINITY 






Committee 

Rev. Andukw M. Van Der Wart, Chairman 

James W, Van Buren 

William H. Erwin 

Arnold J. F. van I^aer 

Daniel Wasserbach 

Charles C. De Rouville 

Gvshert a. De Heus 

Rev. John Ossewaaroe 

WlI.LARI) DoNNEU 

Jai'ou M. C. Qi'ARLEs i)K Qi'ARLES, Secretary 






26 



?'■'>« 



Historical Explanation of the Dutch Floats. 



fN response to the city's invitation to take 
part in the All - Nations' parade, on the 
occasion of the Hudson-Fulton celebra- 
tion, the Hollanders of Albany and vicinity have 
prepared three floats which, it is believed, will 
at once be of local historic interest and sugges- 
tive of the influence of Dutch settlement on the 
development of the entire Hudson valley. 

The subjects of the floats are the first Court 
of Fort Orange and the village of Beverwyck, 
the first stone building of the Reformed Protes- 
tant Dutch Church in the city of Albany, and 
the first school in the colony of Rensselaers- 
wyck, established respectively in 1652, 1715 and 
1648. They are intended to represent in con- 
crete form, and for distinct periods in the history 
of the locality, the three principal elements of 
civilization. Justice, Religion and Education, 
which were introduced in this region by a nation 
which at all times has been conspicuous for its 
love of law and liberty, its belief in religious 
toleration and its high degree of general culture. 
The order of the floats is that of the establish- 
ment of the first judicial, religious and educa- 
tional institutions in this locality, of which one 
existed side by side with the court represented 
by the first float, another laid the foundation for 
the organization represented by the second float 
and the last itself has been chosen as the subject 
of the third float. 



To make this clear it is necessary to recall that 
the city of Albany owes its origin to the estab- 
lishment of a large agricultural colony, known 
as the patroonship of Rensselaerswyck, which, m 
accordance with certain privileges granted m 1629 
by the Dutch West India Company, was founded 
in 1630 by a few directors of the Company, of 
whom Kiliaen van Rensselaer had the manage- 
ment of the colony's affairs and was designated 
as patroon. This colony extended at first mamly 
along the west side of the Hudson river, from 
Coeymans to the mouth of the Mohawk, but by 
subsequent purchases from the Indians it was 
enlarged on the east side of the river, so as to 
cover ultimately a tract of 22}^ by 48 miles, con- 
taining nearly 700,000 acres. Near the center ot 
this tract stood the Company's trading post, called 
Fort Orange, which was built in 1624 on the site 
of the present steamboat square, and around 
this fort clustered the principal settlement of the 
colony, which in the beginning was designated 
as the Fuyck, or hoop-net, from the converging 
lines of its streets, and later became known as 
the village of Beverwyck, the nucleus of our 
])resent city. 

The administration of the fort and that ol the 
colony were entirely distinct. While the first was 
in charge of a factor, called commis, and occupied 
by a few soldiers and traders in the service of 
the West India Company, the second was ruled 
by the agents of the patroon and settled entirely 
by the latter's tenants. As early as 1634, and 
perhaps even as 1632, this colony had a court, 
composed after the manner of the manorial 
courts of the fatherland at that time, of a schoid 
and from three to seven schcpcns, who demanded 
and rendered judgment in the name of the 
patroon. In 1642 the colony received a minister 



of the Gospel, by the name of Johannes Mega- 
polensis, and in 1648 the court of the colony 
granted permission to Evert Nolden to teach 
school. 

All these persons, agents, magistrates, pastor 
and schoolmaster, were appointed either directly 
or indirectly by the patroon; in the administra- 
tion of the aflfairs of the colony the inhabitants 
had no share- 
In 1652 there came a change. Owing to the 
closeness with which the houses of the colony 
surrounded the fort, disputes arose at an early 
day regarding the limits of the Company's 
jurisdiction. These led in 1648 to a prolonged 
controversy between Director General Peter 
Stuyvesant and the newly appointed director of 
Rensselaerwyck, Brant Arentsz van Slichten- 
horst, and ended in 1652 in a highhanded meas- 
ure on the part of the Director General, by which 
he took the principal settlement out of the juris- 
diction of the colony and erected it into a sepa- 
rate village by the name of Beverwyck. At the 
request of the inhabitants, Director General 
Stuyvesant, by decree of April 10, 1652, estab- 
lished in this village a Kleine Banck van Jiistiiic, 
a subordinate bench of justice, which began its 
sessions on April 15, 1652. This court sat in the 
dual capacity of a council for the administration 
of public affairs and of a court of justice for Fort 
Orange and the village of Beverwyck. It was 
composed of the conimis, or trading agent and 
chief military officer of the fort, and six commis- 
sarissen, or magistrates, of whom three, two 
ordinary and one extra -ordinary magistrates, 
were appointed each year by the Director Gen- 
eral and Council of New Netherland from a 
double number chosen by the inhabitants of the 
village. The first persons who composed the 



court were Johannes Dyckman, commis, and 
Abraham Staets, Volckert Jansz Douw, Cor- 
nehs Theunisz van Westbroeck, Rutger Jacobsz, 
Jean Labatie and Andries Herpertsz, commis- 
sarissen, while Pieter Ryverdingh acted as court 
messenger and clerk. 

This court or council of the village of Bever- 
wyck may be considered the germ of the muni- 
cipal government of the city of Albany to-day, 
and has therefore been chosen as the subject of 
the first float. 

The court of Beverwyck held its sessions in 
the Company's building in the fort, almost im- 
mediately adjoining the house occupied by the 
court of the colony of Rensselaerswyck, which 
continued to exist till the arrival of the first 
English governor, Richard Nicolls, in 1665, when 
the two courts were consolidated. 

No drawing of the first court house of the vil- 
lage of Beverwyck is in existence, but a descrip- 
tion has happily been preserved in a memorandum 
submitted by the Company's commis, Johannes 
La Montagne, on September 4, 1660, in justifica- 
tion of the expenditures incurred by him in 
building the second court house of Fort Orange 
and Beverwyck in 1657 and 1658. This descrip- 
tion is as follows: 

" The old house was 26 feet and 9 inches Rhine- 
land measure in length, and two stories high, 
built all around of one inch boards and having a 
pavilion shaped roof, covered with old shingles, 
as said before. Underneath was a cellar, 19 feet 
in width and as long as the width of the house. 
The first story had eight beams, resting on cor- 
bels, and was divided into two parts by a pine 
partition; at the north end was a room 16 or 17 
feet in width and at the south end a vestibule of 
10 feet in width. The second story consisted 



of a single room, used by the court, without 
ceiUng or chimney, and to get to this room one 
had to chmb a straight flight of stairs through a 
trap door." 

This building had by 1657 sagged at the north 
end in such a way as almost completely to crush 
the house of Lambert van Valcken burgh and its 
general condition was so dilapidated that repairs 
seemed useless. It was therefore torn down to 
make room for a larger brick building, which in 
the above mentioned memorandum is described 
as follows: 

"A brick building was built, with two cellars, 
each 21 feet square, separated by a two brick 
wall. The foundation wall of the said cellar is 
3 or 4 feet in thickness, built of substantial stone 
(hauled a distance of 16 miles) 6 feet high, to 
the level of the ground, and on top of this is a 
brick wall, two feet high and three bricks thick, 
upon which rest the cellar beams. The first 
story is divided into three parts; at the north 
end is a room 21 feet square, inside measure, 
with a brick chimney; at the south end a kitchen 
16 feet in width and 21 feet in length, also with a 
chimney and provided with a bedstead and cup- 
board of wainscot; and in the middle a hallway 
5 feet in width, separated from the large room by 
a one brick wall. The upper story is divided 
by a half brick wall into two equal parts, each 
21 feet square. At the north end is a room des- 
tined for the court; at the other end an office, 
in which are a wainscoted bedstead and a chimney. 
Access to this floor is by a winding staircase and 
a separate landing. This landing has three doors; 
one on the left side, which gives access to the 
court room; another towards the front, which 
gives access to the office and which is faced by an 
oval window in the west wall; and a third door 



on the right hand, through which access is had 
to the attic, by means of a winding staircase. 
This attic extends all over the house and above 
it is a loft, suitable for the storage of powder 
and other ammunition. In short, it is a strong 
and substantial house, the walls below and above 
(upon which the beams rest without uprights) 
being one and a half bricks in thickness, provided 
at each gable end with a double chimney, braced 
by 42 anchors and built of choice clinker brick. 
The house is covered with well baked tiles, and 
according to everyone's opinion makes a strong, 
commodious and handsome structure." 

As to the church, we have seen that the colony 
of Rensselaerswyck had a minister of the Gospel 
as early as 1642, Domine Megapolensis having 
arrived with his family on August 13th of that 
year. As far as can be ascertained from the 
records, contrary to the usual statements found 
in printed histories, this minister at once took 
up his abode on the east side of the Hudson 
river, in what was then termed the Greywnhosch, 
literally pine wood, later corrupted to Green- 
bush, in the present city of Rensselaer. For 
some years he seems to have preached either in 
his own house or in the patroon's warehouse on 
the west side of the river, near the fort, which 
warehouse was between 1646 and 1648 adapted 
for religious purposes by building therein a 
pulpit, a sounding board, a pew for the magis- 
trates, another pew for the deacons, a rail around 
the pulpit, a corner seat and nine benches for the 
congregation. This building was used by Domine 
Megapolensis till the end of his service in the 
colony in 1649, and no doubt was also used by 
Domine Wilhelmus Grasmeer, who preached in 
the colony in 1650 and 1651, and by Domine 
Gideon Schaets, who was engaged in Holland as 

8 







I - > I >i II II ( III I.I II ( 1 ; ) \ I 

,.JmyA AM" ^"'o ■.///' 



pastor of the colony of Rensselaerswyck on May 
8, 1652, less than a month after the village of 
Beverwyck had become an independent settle- 
ment. Domine Schaets continued to be paid by 
the patroon and the co-directors of the colony 
till July 24, 1657, but owing to the altered con- 
ditions, and the removal of the buildings around 
the fort, ordered by Stuyvesant, steps were taken 
by the inhabitants as early as 1655 to erect a 
building of their own. The result was the first 
church building of the village of Beverwyck, 
erected in 1656 at the juncture of State street 
and Broadway, then called Jonker straet and 
Handelaer straet. No picture of this building 
exists, but from references in letters of the period, 
in which the church is called a Blockhuys Kercke, 
it appears to have been a wooden structure in 
the shape of a blockhouse. In the course of 1657 
it was adorned with a small bell sent over by 
the directors of the chamber of Amsterdam of 
the West India Company and shortly after it 
was provided with a handsome pulpit, made in 
Holland, which is still preserved in the First 
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of this city. 
In 1 715, during the ministry of Domine Petrus 
Henricus van Driessen, the original building was 
torn down to make room for a larger stone struc- 
ture, which is represented by the illustration on 
the opposite page and which forms the subject 
of the second float. 

This building was erected around the walls of 
the old building and roofed over before the 
former structure was taken down, so that the 
customary services were interrupted but three 
Sabbaths. On the 30th of October the first 
services were held in the new building and on 
the 13 th of November the building was con- 
secrated. It served the congregation for reli- 



gious purposes for nearly a century, but in 1806 
gave, like so many other venerable buildings, 
way for the march of improvements and was 
demolished, the materials being used in the 
construction of a new church on Beaver street. 
Regarding the first school in the colony of 
Rensselaerswyck, which forms the subject of the 
third float, very little is known. On April 30, 
1648, the court of the colony granted permission 
to Evert Nolden to teach school. Whether he 
taught on the west side of the river, in what is 
now Albany, or on the east side of the river, in 
Greenbush, in a building which Arent van Curler 
intended to put up in 1643, and which he thought 
might later be used for school purposes, is not 
known, but certain it is that he did not teach 
very long. In 1650, the inhabitants of the colony 
of Rensselaerswyck petitioned the court to ap- 
point a competent schoolmaster and on Septem- 
ber 9, 1650, the court, in answer to this petition, 
appointed Arent van Curler and Goossen Gerritsz 
van vSchaick trustees of a fund to be raised for 
the building of a school. No record of the ap- 
pointment of a schoolmaster is found, but on 
November 23, 165 1, the court of the colony 
granted Adriaen Jansz, schoolmaster, 50 guilders 
towards the payment of his house rent. Taking 
this fact in connection with the wording of the 
license granted in 1665 by Governor Richard 
Nicolls, to John Shutte, the first English school- 
master of Albany, it is likely that Adriaen Jansz 
taught school in his own home, giving free in- 
struction to the children of the poor and charg- 
ing such fees for the instruction of others as the 
parents could afi"ord to pay. 

A. J. F. VAN Laer 



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